Selling, Segwaying, Slipway Pilgrimaging, Sitting or even Sleeping… Dock Life in pics

First, up, a reminder that the last Sunday of each month is Titanic Pilgrimage day – 2pm in the entrance area of Titanic Belfast if you haven’t yet taken the chance to walk, pause, reflect and pray on ‘Ground Zero’ of the Titanic story:

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And now a few pics from the last week or two.

As Christmas approaches, the pop-up market is going great guns – we’ve had handcrafted paper products and home-made cards over the last few days, with buns, books, art cards and plenty more coming soon… watch this space!  (and remember – if you make it, you can sell it!)

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Speaking of art – as you know our walls are covered with all sorts of wonderful shipyard art and photography, and last week we got to hear the story behind one shipyard photo in particular.  Meet Noel, who clearly remembers falling down this exact ladder during his days working in the H&W Engine Works…  You can’t get local history more real than that!

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Speaking of history, I still love getting the chance to show groups around the Dock and the Titanic Quarter – especially when, as today, we reach the slipways just as the sun sets and the outlines of Titanic and Olympic light up… there’s nowhere like it.

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Speaking of Titanic tours, yesterday i got to fulfil a long-standing ambition to go on one of the Titanic Segway Tours – highly recommended, have a go yourself at the earliest opportunity!

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When it’s time to relax, of course there’s nowhere like Dock Cafe, as this customer proved:

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Or for those who fancy a little bit more activity, we’ve had more great days recently – board game tournaments, lunchtime discussions, or just watching the glorious winter sunsets through our massive windows…

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It’s pretty great, this Life in the Titanic Quarter…

Paid Posts at The Dock

7957111748_76cb37016c_zA very simple blog today, to make a VERY big announcement…

After much discussion, prayer and head-scratching, the Directors of The Dock have made the momentous decision that we are ready to advertise two paid jobs within The Dock.  The job adverts are linked below, and if you are interested in applying (or know anyone else to whom you can pass on the information), please do not hesitate – we’re very excited about the potential of these paid posts.

Great times!

Job advert – Dock Cafe Supervisor

Job advert – Dock Development Coordinator

 

Lunch with C.S Lewis

Screenshot 2013-11-15 18.12.05You can’t have failed to notice that amongst several significant anniversaries over the next few weeks (Doctor Who!  Woo hoo!), 22nd November 2013 is the 50th anniversary of the death of C.S. Lewis.  There’s a wide range of events happening throughout Belfast to mark one of our most famous and influential sons – click here for details of the C.S. Lewis festival.

The Dock’s contribution to the festival steers away from lions, witches and wardrobes (being covered admirably elsewhere), and concentrates instead on Lewis’s huge contribution to discussion of Christian faith.  And so we’re holding lunchtime gatherings from 1-2pm next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (20th/21st/22nd) – events which I hope old Clive Staples would’ve enjoyed – you can easily imagine him enjoying a good discussion and debate around the tables in the Inklings in Oxford.

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lewis_godlove1We’ll gather each day at 1pm in the Dock Prayer Garden, bringing our sandwiches and coffees, and as a discussion starter we’ll listen to some lovely old crackly radio recordings of C.S. Lewis’s broadcasts delivered during World War Two – addresses which later were combined into his incredibly influential ‘Mere Christianity’.

cslewisWith his typical clarity and piercing intelligence, these broadcasts deal with issues like evolution and prayer – or as Lewis puts it in his wonderful plummy accent (no traces of East Belfast left in him by this stage), “the whole ideeaaarrr of praaaaarrr”.

Then we’ll discuss, debate and (probably) disagree – just as the great man intended.

No need to book – just see you there!

Discover the Dock Doc Director’s Danny Boy Doc

Patricia, the supremely-wonderful TV producer who made ‘Mission Titanic’ (the Dock’s very own fly-on-the-wall documentary), has a new documentary on the BBC this week – the story of the song ‘Danny Boy’.  I remember she had just had the idea and was getting started on production as Mission Titanic was being broadcast – great to see the finished article!

More info here and the full programme on iPlayer here.

And in a nice piece of serendipity, the Dock’s new buskers-in-residence – Phil & Naomi (joined here by Nigel) played their beautiful version of Danny Boy just as we were closing up the cafe on Saturday:

And if you haven’t already caught up with Patricia’s previous masterwork…

Just a perfect day… (again)

Another utterly perfect day in The Dock today!

We had a hen party (but a nice one) get stuck into a quilt-making class all afternoon:

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We had a full house for Dock Book Group:

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We met new neighbours and old friends, people from Germany, Spain, South Africa, America, and even Donaghadee:

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We served a new flavour of soup (Carrot and Bacon) which went down a storm…  All our soup is now cooked-up fresh every day by our fantastic neighbours in The Mace.  It’s so nice and warming that Dock Volunteer Harry continued in his denial that Summer is over…

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2013-11-08 16.50.23And we had music from a supremely talented duo, Phil and Naomi, who have been playing in The Dock a couple of times recently… their mixture of classical, folky, bluesy and spiritual music was so beautiful and inspiring that everyone who heard them felt a little touch of the divine…

A thousand great conversations, unexpected meetings, happy customers, new contacts and old friends.  Life in abundance…